Why Epic is Wrong About Mobile Gaming.

by David Klemke on April 26, 2011

The world of mobile gaming is a curious one. It’s roots date back well over decade but it’s only really come into its own in the past few years as smartphones became capable enough and there were platforms available to support it. The industry blossomed on the backs of the small and independent developers who took advantage of the low barriers to entry to be able to release their games on the platform and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. As a traditional gamer I was a bit sceptical that it would amount to anything more than just another time waster platform, my opinion only changing after buying Infinity Blade which I thoroughly enjoyed. Still I’m a firm believer that the mobile platform, whilst definitely a successful industry, is not killing other platforms as you just can’t recreate the same experience on a tablet or handheld as you can with a PC or a console.

Of course the large game developers and publishers are concerned about how what the future of their business will look like. With mobile gaming carving out a good chunk of the games industry in such a small amount of time (about 6.4% of all games industry revenue) and social networking games grabbing about the same it really shouldn’t come as a surprise that they might be worried about it. Recently Mike Capps, president of Epic who create the Unreal engine, went on record saying that the flood of 99 cent games was killing them:

“We have not been this uncertain about what’s coming next in the games industry since Epic’s been around for 20 years. We’re at such an inflection point. Will there be physical distribution in 10 years or even five? Will anyone care about the next console generation? What’s going on in PC? Can you make money on PC if it’s not a connected game? What’s going on in mobile?

…

“If there’s anything that’s killing us [in the traditional games business] it’s dollar apps,” he lamented. “How do you sell someone a $60 game that’s really worth it … They’re used to 99 cents. As I said, it’s an uncertain time in the industry. But it’s an exciting time for whoever picks the right path and wins.”

If you take into consideration the vast majority of people who play games on their phones don’t play games on other platforms¹ then it makes sense that you can’t sell them a $60 game because the platform just isn’t suited to that kind of title. Sure people may spend a good chunk of time playing games on their mobiles (rivalling the amount of time spent on more traditional titles) but it’s in no way comparable. Most of the time spent on mobile games is done in fits and bursts as the platform is aptly tuned to, rather than the long continuous sessions that PC and console gamers are more accustomed to. In essence if you’re a traditional game developer or publisher looking to push your wares onto the mobile market you’re not going to be building the same kind of products, nor are you going to be charging the same price.

Additionally the mobile gaming industry is in no way killing any of the other platforms. Consoles are by far the kings of the industry bringing in over 40% of the total revenue with PCs still making up a good 20% (and is even growing despite the heavy competition). Sure mobile games have brought some disruption to the industry and have given pause to many developers and publishers who are trying to gauge where the industry is heading. Frankly though if you think that there’s no future left in the classic $60 titles then you deserve to go out of business, since the industry figures just don’t support that view.

I do agree with Capps’ claim that we’re at an inflection point where the games industry is facing quite a few fundamental changes. Just like the music and film industries before them though they will need to adapt to these market changes or face dying a slow death as they attempt to shoe horn their business models into the new world. I do believe that the games industry is far better poised to adapt and innovate with these market disruptions than their more traditional media outlets were and that was proven by just how fast mobile gaming caught on as a mainstream phenomenon. Still mobile gaming is a long, long way from killing off the traditional gaming sector and realistically it has a lot of growing up to do before it would ever have a chance at doing so.

¹I tried my darnedest to find some solid numbers on this and couldn’t find anything substantial. I stand by the sentiment though as from my personal viewpoint the vast majority of people who are mobile gamers are solely dedicated to that platform and don’t play games anything else.

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Razer’s new Switchblade (http://www.razerzone.com/switchblade) will be an interesting development given that it will be mobile gaming but most likely a platform for the $60 titles. Will it be in fact that mobile gaming will get to the stage where it outgrows the $1 apps for the majority and in turn will have highly developed games instead.

Interesting, kind of midway between a gaming handheld and a laptop. As portable gaming power increases I can’t see any reason why big budget (and appropriately priced) titles wouldn’t start making their way onto the platform as that’s the most limiting thing about it today. There’s already signs of that happening to with a good chunk of tablet owners using them primarily as gaming machines.